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Friday, August 8, 2014

No Catchty Title...

... for this post nor any deeply rooted revelations - just some reflections on a couple of issues that came to mind recently.

Mrs PP, our grdaughter and I took a week off for some personal business, a family reunion and a speaking engagement that I had earlier this week. Between the reunion and meeting, we did some sight-seeing in the area of the reunion and in Plymouth, Mass.

The park where the picnic was held was the same but had upgraded facilities since my my last visit - over 45 years ago. Rebuilt pavilions and such; new swing sets and slides, etc. It even had a baseball field adjacent to the picnic area which wasn't there back in the day.

We traveled to my Grandmother's old homestead where I had the privilege of spending my teen summers helping her. I carried coal and wood from the coalhouse which was used to cook with and heat water for bathing and laundry. The coalhouse is gone as is most of the coal dumped near it some 45 years ago. The house is smaller than I remember as are the grounds in general. The huge pine in front of the house lost roughly 30 feet of it's top a couple years ago but still stands tall.

The current owner was very gracious and hospitable allowing us to wander the grounds and even take a brief tour inside the house. Little inside had changed but the old stove was gone as was the flip-top table we all used to sit at for meals. He has installed a flushing toilet but the outhouse still stands.

The well water is potable again since the strip and fracking mining has stopped. While I stayed there, the water had gone bad so we had to pull our drinking water from a natural spring over half mile down the road. Since then, the spring which my Grandfather helped dig out and line with slate rocks has filled in with natural debris and silt.

Leaving there was hard, knowing that it wasn't in the family anymore and that I could only be a visitor - so long as I didn't stay too long too often. I can't "go back" to those 55 acres in the hills of north central Pennsylvania but for the occasional nostalgic visit.

Plymouth, Mass. had it's own unique effects. We visited the National Monument to the Forefathers. Impressive in size and scope. It takes time to take in all that is depicted there. We drove a few blocks further to the dock where the Mayflower II is moored. It's a replica of the ship the English settlers sailed to the "New World". The entire area has been taken prey by tourism so we didn't expend the small fortune needed to tour the ship but we could see the ship and it was hard to imagine over 100 people crammed on board headed across an ocean to place none knew. What they did know was that they had to leave behind the deplorable conditions under which they had lived. This unknown could not be any worse.

(I know, get to the point already...)

Change happens and is not always a bad thing(although it may be difficult to get one's head around for a bit). Some change is needful, even mandatory - crucial, if you will. One's very existence may depend on change taking place.

There is no boat to a "new world". There is no "new world" to go to - not by boat nor any other conveyance. There will be no new "Plymouth Rock" for brave travelers who disembark to step on. Rather, we have been pushed back against the wall by the progressive change in this nation. There is nowhere to go except back to near where we were before things went south so badly which will be in direct opposition to what is going on today and those making it happen.

I believe the "flight" option of the "flight or fight" response has been removed from the table. Neither is hiding an option. It's time to have an "all in" mentality and outlook and to be ready to go all in when the fight comes.

It's coming. It will effect every last one of the 320+ million in this nation.

James 5:12 "But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation."

You come to these pages and lurk. You're undecided about throwing in with the III.

The window for choosing is closing fast. You know what you need to do: